A/N: Heyho there my lovelies! Damn, there's so many clicks already, that's insane!

As for me, school's officially over... forever, I passed my final exams, I'm so relieved! I wish you guys loads of fun reading! :*

He was going to break my heart and yet, I was too blind to not give in. I fell for him. Even if that meant that the man who would kill me was the last person I had ever loved.

Chapter 1

My toes dug into the green grass beneath me as a sigh escaped my lips. Cat – or, her real name she noticeably preferred, Catherine – had been right. It had taken two days until I remembered the hot flames embracing our house, the recent happenings repeating themselves in my head like a Ferris wheel. I am Greta Jones, twenty years old and a successful lawyer. My faction is Candor. No. My faction was Candor. I remembered the deafening sound of an explosion quivering the grounds of Candor and I remembered my little sister screaming in agony as the fire got a hold of her, covering her in deadly heat and burning her black and white striped dress before the flames started to lick on her pale skin. They swallowed her as a whole, leaving nothing but the repulsive smell of human flesh behind.

My back still hurt. Although Catherine was the most skilled doctor I had ever met in my life, the large scars on my neck and also my ankles would probably stay forever, remind me of the loss of my family, my home and basically my whole life every time I looked in the mirror.

Still barefoot, I headed straight to one of the larger ruins of Abnegation, making myself comfortable on a huge rock outlying the rest of what was left of us – I only recognised some of them as I hadn't even bothered to find out who else had survived.

We had been living here with the Stiff for about two weeks now. Although the attack on Abnegation enacted by Divergents only laid back a couple of months, its selfless people remained helpful. They provided us with food, clothes and shared their extemporary shelters with us.

I stared down at the simple grey clothes I was wearing. Their former owner must have been a giant. It felt like being covered in a big bin bag made of linen. I tugged at the boring fabric of my skirt.

Erudite had told us about the circumstances by now. About the explosion, the exact reason of its occurrence still unknown. It had melted down the fuses of the Merciless Mart connecting electricity in all households of Candor. Then, the gas conductions broke and in the twinkling of an eye, the fire was everywhere. So many people had lost their lives that day, even more than when Abnegation was attacked. Among them my little sister. My boyfriend. Lucas had been with Jack Kang when it happened and I could only hope his death had been painless and fast.

I closed my eyes, enjoying the deafening silence around me while my naked feet drew circles on the dusty rock I was sitting on. It was little short of a miracle that I was still alive. It seemed impossible but after I had lost consciousness, there was nothing else I could remember. For all I knew, Dauntless members were able to save at least a few of us.

Today, they wanted us to gather in the Hub to find a lasting solution. I sneered at the very thought of it. How could there be a solution? My faction was destroyed, its people wiped from existence like nothing. Day by day, Erudite sent out more Dauntless members to the ruins of our faction to search for any more signs of living within the shattered walls of the once so intimidating glass buildings but there was no news. None that I would know about.

"Greta! We're gonna be late!"

Sighing desperately, I wiped invisible dust of my clothes before I got up to change. I had one thing left reminding me of my faction. It was a dress, black and white, representing Candor to the fullest. My sister had owned the same one. We'd bought it together because it had reminded us of piano tiles. I had heard a lot of stories about pianos and talented musicians playing them, their fingers neatly flying over the tiles and creating enchanting music. Only once in my life my sister and I had been able to listen to the golden sounds of it. It was a trip to Amity with our father, the only place they still occasionally used musical instruments.

Enjoying the feeling of the moist grass under my soles, I made my way back to the place I had been sleeping for the last two weeks. The dress was well hidden under my pillow. Apart from Charlene, another survivor and also a former classmate of mine as well as the Abnegation girl who had offered to wash it for me, nobody knew I still had it. Now they would find out.

I slipped out of my boring Abnegation clothes and quickly replaced them with the dress, gazing at the black ballerinas in the corner of the shelter. They would leave the burning marks on my ankles visible but it was yet at lot more convenient than wearing the grey sneakers Abnegation used to put on. Those would only scratch my wounds open again and since that already happened once last week, I knew that I certainly didn't want to risk the sharp pain again.

"Are you ready?" Charlene took my hand as we both followed the others outside to the train station. I nodded, scolding myself for lying to the only friend I had left. But I wasn't. I wasn't ready at all.

"I'm scared." She whispered hardly audible, squeezing my hand so tight it almost hurt. "Where is all of this going? First Abnegation, now Candor. All those dead people. Who is next?"

I shook my head, trying not to think about it. I never did because I never cried. I hadn't cried since my parents' death two years ago. I suffered silently, when everybody around me was sleeping. When the nightmares came and dreams about fire demons and scorched corpses stole my sleep.

"I don't know." I replied, sighing once more as we got on the dirty train. When it started to move in the direction of the centre of Chicago, it felt like I was heading straight towards my execution.

Candor was my rightful place. Or maybe not. It was honesty that made out its people but I had always been determined to keep my secrets. After initation and lying to myself to believe in truths that weren't mine, I swore to myself I would never trust anyone but my sister. I didn't want people to know about my deepest thoughts, fears and dreams. With my aptitude test resulting in Erudite, I had only decided to stay in Candor because of my parents. Now it was their legacy and apart from that, somebody had had to look out for my sister. I couldn't have possibly left her with a foster family, let alone in an orphanage. The faction system was strict. Candor was strict. What if they'd have sent her away to the factionless because she was a redundant remnant of a broken family?

Still, I didn't wish for this place to be destroyed. It was home, after all. Far too honest but home. I had learned not to give a shit about people who didn't approve on my opinion, had been raised to be proud of my ability to think about something a certain way. And I had learned how to hide a secret, how to get away with lies. Nobody was able see through me. Ever.

Charlene let go of my hand when we arrived at the endless staircase of the Hub. A jam formed in front of the doors of the elevator. Rolling my eyes, I tilted my head towards the stairs, asking her to follow me.

Normally, this was the place the choosing ceremonies were held. Although I knew back then that my life would continue the way it was after I had stepped down the aisle to drop my blood into one of the metal bowls, I had been nervous. My hands were sweaty, my whole body was trembling from excitement.

Charlene and I reached the aisle as one of the last ones, looking around for free seats in the colourful crowd. They were all present. Amity, Erudite, Dauntless, a few Abnegation and what was left of Candor. It felt just like another choosing ceremony when we dropped into some free seats next to a rather obese Erudite member. But today was different. None of us knew what would happen. Whether we would end up factionless or join Abnegation in the ruins of their former houses permanently.

"Good morning, faction members." I looked up with my lips curled to see Jeanine Matthews standing in front of the huge table in the middle of the hall, the bowls on it empty and clean. Although I hardly ever saw and let alone personally knew her, my aversion towards her was aggressively huge. My gaze drifted over the blue dress she was wearing down to her thin high heels clattering on the marble floor beneath her as she walked around, waiting for everybody to listen up.

Eventually, they did. "As we all gathered here today, it is my belief that I speak for each member of our society when I say that we are terribly sorry for this recent MCA our fellow inhabitants of Candor had to face." MCA. Was that what she liked to call it now? Maximum credible accident? It was more than that. This was just the scientific expression for all the devastation within these "safe" walls of the city. I swallowed hard, clenching my fists until they felt numb.

"We are incredibly sorry for the losses you made and will therefore promise to work hard as the unit we are to build your faction, your home, up again." And it would take ages. Charlene bit her lower lip as she threw me a desperate look. She seemed to think the exact same thing.

"Being the last survivors of your faction, you have all right to know what caused this awful explosion. And while Erudite and Dauntless are trying everything in our power to analyse the exact circumstances, what we can tell you for now is that the Divergents celebrated yet another victory."

All of a sudden, heated mumbling washed over the hall like a wave. Divergents. A few months back, I hadn't even known they existed. People who didn't fit into one of our factions only but more. Jeanine had told us they were dangerous. That they were the ones who had plotted the attack on Abnegation. I, however, didn't know what to believe. I was a suspicious person by nature but I was also pretty sure that many of those Divergents desperately wished to be normal, like us.

Jeanine continued talking after the whispers had stopped again.

"Nonetheless, we will not give in. We will continue to fight and defeat them to ensure a safe life within our faction system. As for you, Candor members, it is now of importance that we keep you integrated. Therefore, we have decided it would be best for all of us to uphold each other when we put you in the spare places of the remaining factions as you have all right to continue your lives."

Integrate us. Spare places. Remaining factions. It took a while until my brain had processed Jeanine's words. Once I understood, Charlene and all the others raised their voices to debate once more, this time even more excited than before. My heart skipped a beat when I realised what this meant. They wanted us to live with another faction. How? And why hadn't they decided to do the same thing for Abnegation when their homes had been destroyed? Jeanine and the rest of Erudite might didn't like them too much because they had longed for their position in government but her settlement was against human nature.

Again, Charlene seemed to share my thoughts. She squeezed my hand in fear about what was to come. There was more behind this solution. Determination and angst rushed through me.

I counted. We were only forty-three people. Forty-three people who had survived the explosion, the fire, me among them. Jeanine explained what would happen next. One by one, they called out our names and we were to step forward and join our "new" temporary faction. It all went by so fast it was impossible for me to follow. Charlene's hand almost squashed my fingers in the process.

"Mary Figg. Erudite."

I was wondering what system they were going after. Was it random? Hardly. Jeanine was an Erudite, they had to go after some kind of order, if not the alphabetical one.

"Robert Stratford. Amity."

I might end up in Amity, too. Both my parents had transferred from there, after all.

"Celsay Higgins, Dauntless."

Or I joined Erudite. Being an invention of Jeanine herself, the aptitude test and thus its results were accessible to her at any time given.

"Greta Jones."

My heart jumped when I heard my name. Hesitantly, I stood up, walked into the middle of the hall and waited for the Erudite man to continue. Breathing regularly was long forgotten when he assigned me to my new home. Maybe I would be able to forget about the pain while harvesting fruits and vegetables in the sun, laughing with Amity members and wearing bright colours. My plans to make my situation bearable, however, failed completely before they even had a chance to thrive.

"Dauntless."

No familiar faces. Nobody I identified with. After I had regained the ability to breathe, I bit my lower lip so hard I tasted blood. My fingers dug into my palms, leaving ugly imprints on them.

I didn't feel the hands clapping on my back to welcome me, didn't feel the looks I was given from both Charlene and some curious Dauntless members.

There was no way I could fit in here or live here as a remnant of Candor. They were soldiers, trained to obey rules and commands.

"Charlene Edwards, Amity."

Dauntless were messy, reckless and careless. I felt like throwing up, looked around the hall to search for any fellow Candor members apart from Charlene who was now joining a group of red and yellow-dressed Amity members and immediately pulled into a tight hug by Johanna, their leader.

"Alexander Brown, Erudite."

Fourty-three. That meant that at least fourteen of us would join Dauntless as well. I gazed around to spot Jack Kang's assistant. She was young, beautiful and used to wear a similar dress to mine. Now, she was wrapped in some boring Abnegation clothes that hid her female curves to the fullest.

"Katherine Johnson, Amity."

I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down at least a bit. You will join Dauntless. The only faction I had always known I would never want to be a part of. The fire had already taken my innocent little sister, ripped my heart apart and stole my home from me. I doubted I would survive in an environment I despised, taking orders and obeying absurd rules. As a lawyer, it was usually me telling people and co-workers what to do. I liked being independent and having it my way. Back in school, it always got me into trouble.

"Are you ok?"

Looking to my left, I realised a young man touching my shoulder, a worried expression on his face.

"Marvel."

He wore a white Candor jacket combined with some grey pants from Abnegation. Grey sneakers completed his unusual outfit. Before I was able to reply anything more, he wrapped his arms around me. I closed my eyes. Marvel and I had been close to what one would call friends in school. After initiation, we had both lost sight of each other but still shared occasional conversations when our paths crossed in the Merciless Mart. Now they used to.

"I'm not even close to okay." I murmured honestly, enjoying the smell of lemon in his jacket. Some Abnegation member must have washed it for him as well.

"I know. Me neither. But we will make it. I know we will."

I didn't doubt for a second that Marvel would make it in Dauntless. Unlike me, he was well-built and submissive if needed. We didn't share a lot of similarities apart from our black hair and brown eyes. Reluctantly, I let go of him, sighing and resting my head on his shoulder while listening to the rest of us being assigned to a strange new life. The last names of a married couple were being called, the pain in my chest growing almost unbearable.

"Candors, we wish you all the luck to come to terms with this crisis and we want you all to remember that we are here to support you. Faction before blood!"

"Faction before blood." A choir repeated after Jeanine. And that was it. People rose from their chairs, starting conversations and forming groups to leave the Hub like nothing ever happened. Like this had been some normal event. I grabbed Marvel's forearm to keep him close while all the Dauntless members around us started to push themselves towards the exit, dragging us straight with them.

Did they expect us to jump on a train to reach their headquarters? They couldn't. The burnings on my ankles would prevent me from jumping more than a few couple of inches. Marvel crossed his fingers with mine so he wouldn't lose me in the wild crowd. Once we reached outside, I let out a relieved sigh, realising that the train had indeed stopped for us to board it this time.

It would take us away. Away from what was left of Candor, away from the Hub and away from the ruins of Abnegation where I had temporarily found my peace every time I hid far away on my rock, grieving silently and trying to remember every little detail of my sister when she was laughing, crying or pondering on homework.

I swallowed hard, looking over a hairy Dauntless member with green hair helping me onto the train as one of the last ones. Marvel slung his arm around my waist when it took off. He mirrored my expression. We were worried. And we were scared.

A/N: I promise, Eric will show up in the next chapter. I guess got a little... carried away! Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments!

Love, Stef